Norman Wallace Lermond

Norman Wallace Lermond (July 27, 1861 – 1944) was an American naturalist and socialist activist. Lermond helped found the socialist Populist Party in Maine and in 1892, Lermond ran for the U.S. Congress from Maine's 2nd congressional district with the Populist Party, finishing in third place with 3.63% of the vote. In 1900, Lermond ran for Governor of Maine, becoming the first socialist candidate for Governor in Maine history. He lost to Republican John Fremont Hill.

Lermond was born on July 27, 1861 in Warren, Maine to Omar W. and Rebecca (Todd) Lermond. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1872 and he was sent to a religious boarding school in Hartford, Connecticut. He later attended Dudley Grammar School in Roxbury and English High School of Boston. After his schooling he worked in the Bartlett book store and then worked a year for a trade journal The Boston Telegram in New York. He worked for the New York and New England Railroad for several years as an accountant.

He was noted to be a farmer and helped found the Thomaston Farmers' Exchange in 1880 and helped organize the New England Milk Association.

Lermond started to write an autobiography but died before it was completed. His papers were found with the Department of Mollusks of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and was published with annotations.

Lermond was buried, at his request, in a pine box under a large pine tree in an unmarked grave at the entrance to his arboretum in Maine.

Lermond was notable as a founder of the Socialist Party of Maine in the 1890s. He envisioned "local unions" (communities) establishing the first one at what became the Knox Arboretum. He helped create the Brotherhood of the Co-operative Commonwealth and the Equality Colony in the state of Washington with the intent of socialism taking over the state and then the country. According to the Maine Historical Society he called his local union Utopia Park. He was inspired by Edward Bellamy's Equality and in the five months he spent in Edison, Washington helping establish the Equality Colony, he helped found the socialist newspaper Equality.

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